BORIS KARLOFF-THE GENTLE MONSTER-1995-This is basically an overview of the life and career of "the king of monsters" Boris Karloff from his beginnings in England to struggling starving unknown to superstardom at age 43 in FRANKENSTEIN. It touches on his marriages, typecasting and even does a nice bit on his association with Val Lewton. It covers his TV work including showing some scenes from the Playhouse 90 version of HEART OF DARKNESS. And of course HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS It's told mostly through film scenes, trailers, home movies, etc. but there are interviews with Ron Borst, Sara Karloff, Roddy McDowall, Bela Lugosi Jr., Forrest Ackerman, Robert Wise, Anna Lee, Carol Burnett, Cynthia Lindsey and his agent Arthur Kennard. Glosses over a lot but it's only 60 mins so they do cram in most of his life (it was originally an episode of A & E's BIOGRAPHY TV show although this is narrated by Richard Kiley who says "What the Beatles were to music Boris was to horror").
Director Kevin Burns also made a very good TV special THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN the same year. Most recently he produced and directed episodes of the reality show THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND on The History Channel.
Watch a Karloff movie this weekend! Thanks for reading!
2 comments:
I keep hoping someone will make a Karloff biopic starring Jeremy Irons!
Now that would be interesting! I've always thought Jon Pertwee, the 2nd Doctor Who had a lot of Karloff mannerisms, especially his voice...
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